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Trayvon, Zimmerman & Our Neighborhood Watch (Plus+)

I guess Earl’s anxieties have been alleviated.Angela Corey, the Special Prosecutor in Florida, threw the book at Zimmerman. Instead of passing on charging him or charging him with Manslaughter, she went all the way to Murder in the 2nd degree.

Now, I suppose one could come up with a conspiracy theory that this is an over-charge and a jury may not be able to convict on it. However, since Florida allows for “lesser included charges” to be found by a jury, this kind of bad faith conspiracy doesn’t seem to be warranted.

Corey held a news conference and said all the right things and acted like a responsible grown-up. She disclosed that she had established a personal relationship with Trayvon’s parents and had prayed with them. She spoke passionately about how Trayvon was her client and justice her goal. She was quite credible.

Only one part seemed less than forthcoming. She claimed that public outcry and petitions had nothing to do with her bringing charges against Zimmerman. This is almost certainly untrue. Had the family accepted the refusal of the original prosecutor to bring charges, we can be pretty sure that Zimmerman would be walking free and there would be no case. It was clearly the public outcry that led to the suspension of the police chief, the dismissal of the original prosecutor and the appointment of Angela Corey.

This is not how justice is supposed to work. Authorities should do the right thing from the start, but often they don’t. It certainly seems that they don’t do the right thing disproportionately when folks, in the words of Mohammad Ali, “Don’t have the right complexion or connections.”

Justice should be blind to race and class, but it isn’t. This is why “We the People” need to be vigilant and involved. We can have no justice if it is “just us” who gets treated fairly. We are all members of a kind of judicial Neighborhood Watch. We do our rounds without guns or pitchforks. We are armed only by a passion for justice, justice for all.

Plus:On a Related Note: Oh the Irony!
We live in a strange world–but you knew that already. Wednesday April 11, America was treated to endless press conferences, media opportunities and interviews on cable and regular national news shows. We were inundated with pleas to let justice be done, let the legal system work and not try the case in the media. There is something slightly disturbing and ironic in using the media to try to discourage the media from speculating and pre-trying and prejudging the case.

Seemingly serious talking heads and cable hosts (okay already an oxymoron) were repeating words to the effect “We don’t want to speculate but….” And then they went on to speculate what we know, what we don’t know and what others “must” know. They speculate about the actions of both Trayvon and Zimmerman, the motives of the police and lawyers and even about what an un-named judge and jury might do. Their need to fill the void and feed the beast of time is well known and their actions predictable.

What disturbs me is the question of why the lawyers, both for the “people” and Zimmerman, don’t get the irony of going from camera to camera and asking the public to stand down and not try this in the media? This is like shouting: People! Stop shouting!
2012 Jonathan Dobrerwww.Dobrer.com

While I don’t condone the act committed by Zimmerman, I can’t condemn him for his actions. Until you have been placed in a similar situation in similar circumstances you don’t know how you would respond.

The media, as usual, have stoked the fires of hate and discrimination with their constant, as you say, barrage of speculations about the “facts”. No one knows the facts except two people, and one of them cannot speak.

To have such pressure by the media as we have seen applied to a Prosecutor will always have the same result. We are headed to mob rule – it worked once, we’ll try it again – when another controversial incident occurs.

Excellent article.

Candidate city council dist 11 Wilson

I am not a neighborhood watch person. In 1993 at age 42 I saw a tall black teen, male about 16 chase a girl the same age, Hispanic, small. He caught her in 2 seconds. He started hitting her with fists like a man boxing a man. I stopped my car, ran over to the crime, I choked the male from behind with a bar arm hold to get him off of her. 2 sec later 10 more black teens, mostly female ran up and started beating in me with fists. I let go and backed off. Another male teen, black, sort of a 16 yr old Muhammad Ali type backed me off, 15 ft away from me. They all wanted me to just go away. Ali teen says “You’re choking my cuz, you’re choking my cuz!?” I yell “He’s hitting a girl, he’s hitting a girl!” I realize in my mind quickly, I could end up dead, the boy could end up dead, I could go to jail. I run to my house 50 feet away. Teen does not follow me. I call police, shaking and shaken. Police come in one minute. Gang is gone by now of course. Cop tells me this is the Venice gang (black) getting revenge on anyone Hispanic in this Pico ( Santa Monica) neighborhood/gang. They do not care male or female, gangster or not. Moral: use your head, be a good witness,do not carry a gun unless prepared to use it legally. Do be a Good Samaritan, I would do the same again if I see a crime like this or a Bully situation.